Beskrivningens metodik. Om att sätta ord på det ... - Sveriges Museer
Beskrivningens metodik. Om att sätta ord på det ... - Sveriges Museer Beskrivningens metodik. Om att sätta ord på det ... - Sveriges Museer
The Methodologyof DescriptionEnglish SummaryEthnological description is not an unambiguous concept. Sometimeswe mean the context of an interview that we write down in summaryform in our field notes, while at other times we mean the text loadedwith scientific theory and analysis that is the result of the fieldwork.Description is mostly used as a complement to other methods, butsometimes a description in itself constitutes a full and independentbody of material. Sometimes it is envisaged for publication while atother times it is intended solely for the archives.In any study of the present day there is a mass of implicit informationwhich it ought to be possible to include as part of the documentation,but which is far too seldom preserved. It is not least forthat reason that description as a fieldwork method should be discussedand developed. For how do we actually treat the experiences andthe knowledge that we fieldworkers acquire when we sit at the coffeetable together with a family whose daughter we have just interviewed,when we are on a study visit to a workplace, or when we take partin rehearsals with a brass band? There is an obvious risk that thesewill be reduced to brief notes as an aide-mémoire for the writing ofthe report, above all because it takes time to produce independent anddetailed descriptions. But if we use the potential of description, the77
analysis, the report, and the exhibition can be richer, and the archivalmaterial we leave behind will be fuller.The fact that it is easy to avoid working with detailed descriptions,instead preferring brief field notes and more definable interviews,was something about which there was full agreement among theparticipants in the course Descriptions and Musealization, arranged bySamdok and the Nordiska Museet in November 1999. Earlier courseson method (and the subsequent books) have dealt with topics suchas interview techniques, artefacts, and photographic documentation.This time we had chosen to let the descriptions be the methodologicaltheme.In this book the authors discuss narrative as a genre and description asa method from various perspectives. The focus, however, is on ethnologicaldescription.A journalist’s task is to tell a story, not to present research findings,according to Anders Sundelin in “Narrative as Deception”. Sundelinemphasizes the importance of being honest when telling a story.Along with exactness of detail, being convinced that what one is describingis true when one is describing it gives the text credibility andlegitimacy. Anders Sundelin often proceeds from a scene which servesas a starting point for the story he wants to tell, and this, in his opinion,makes the story alive.In her article “Descriptions: Communicating What You Have Seenand Heard”, Annette Rosengren draws attention to what she finds tobe the great similarities between documentary narrative, for example,in film and journalism, and the documentation work of Swedish museums.One such similarity is that the work in both cases proceeds fromthe assumption that it is meaningful to learn about people’s reality.Annette Rosengren claims that we often reduce our descriptions toshort sentences in field diaries, when we should instead emphasize anddevelop the method. The ideal description should be able to give asense of presence, visualization, and well-chosen details. She reasonsabout ethnological descriptions which, besides being readable today,78
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- Page 43 and 44: det förstås också flera fältarb
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- Page 47 and 48: det som att vi ställer oss bakom n
- Page 49 and 50: 11. Intressant är att det faktiskt
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- Page 54 and 55: och kulturell mångfald gestaltas.
- Page 56 and 57: orgarzonen”) (Ronström 1992, jfr
- Page 58 and 59: etnisk grupp, är alltså inte någ
- Page 60 and 61: stås också etnografi. Det vi är
- Page 62 and 63: nat. I sin både hyllade och kritis
- Page 64 and 65: långt fler positioner att växla m
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- Page 70 and 71: AvslutningHermes kommunikationsteor
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- Page 76 and 77: FörfattarpresentationerMaria Eriks
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The Methodologyof DescriptionEnglish SummaryEthnological description is not an unambiguous concept. Sometimeswe mean the context of an interview that we write down in summaryform in our field notes, while at other times we mean the text loadedwith scientific theory and analysis that is the result of the fieldwork.Description is mostly used as a complement to other methods, butsometimes a description in itself constitutes a full and independentbody of material. Sometimes it is envisaged for publication while atother times it is intended solely for the archives.In any study of the present day there is a mass of implicit informationwhich it ought to be possible to include as part of the documentation,but which is far too seldom preserved. It is not least forthat reason that description as a fieldwork method should be discussedand developed. For how do we actually treat the experiences andthe knowledge that we fieldworkers acquire when we sit at the coffeetable together with a family whose daughter we have just interviewed,when we are on a study visit to a workplace, or when we take partin rehearsals with a brass band? There is an obvious risk that thesewill be reduced to brief notes as an aide-mémoire for the writing ofthe report, above all because it takes time to produce independent and<strong>det</strong>ailed descriptions. But if we use the potential of description, the77
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